Toy gun



Dec. 19, 1950 BEATHAN 2,534,398

TOY GUN Filed March 29, 1946 Patented Dec. 19, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFlCE TOY GUN Mark A. Beathan, Queens Village, N. Y.

Application March 29, 1946, Serial No. 658,129

3 Claims. 1

This invention relates to toy guns, and more particularly to a gun designed to propel apuff of air, which may be said to serve as the projectile. While a gun is an attractive toy for children, in most cases it possesses the disadvantage that, if it employs an actual projectile of some type, there is always a certain amount of danger present in its use. Even guns which shoot darts or corks or other light and so-called harmless projectlles may be the cause of injury under certain conditions.

I contemplate by the present invention to provide a gun which will be absolutely harmless and 'yetcan be fired at a target which will indicate whether or not the latter has been struck. As

illustrated, the device comprises a gun which shoots a slug or puff of air. By the term slug I do not want to be limited to a solid mass of air, however, as the particular gun illustrated probably delivers a projectile in the form of a ring or torus of air, and this ring or puff of air will travel in compact form through the air and will strike a target at a distance of ten or fifteen feet, for example.

The gun' may be employed to knock down a light standing figure, to blow out a candle, or to blow a paper target, such as an airplane, for example, from a point of suspension. As the projectile in the form of a puff of air does not scatter appreciably but remains in compact form, the gun must be pointed at the target accurately before the latter will be struck. Thus my gun will provide a great deal of amusement for children and will be entirely harmless.

One object of the present invention is to pro vide a toy gun of novel form.

.A further object of the invention is to provide a toy gun adapted to employ a ring or slug of air as a projectile.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a toy gun which will be attractive to children and a source of entertainment, but will, at the same time, be safe and harmless for children to use.

To these and other ends the invention consists in the novel features and combinations of parts to be hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a toy gun em- I bodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view on line 2--2 of Fig. 1:

Fig. *3 is an enlarged plan view of a portion of the gun adjacent the trigger;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view on line 44 of Fig. l; and t Fig. 5 is a perspective view illustrating one fo of target which may be employed with the gun.

To illustrate a preferred embodiment of my invention, I have shown a gun comprising a stock in and a barrel H secured thereto and projecting forwardly therefrom. These parts may be made of light material, such as wood, and serve principally as supporting parts for the other mechanism, the barrel ll being shaped to simulate the appearance of a gun as it does not have the function of the usual gun barrel in that-the projectile does not issue from it.

Secured to the barrel II is a'chamber l2 which may be formed of sheet metal, for example, and as shown is cylindrical in form and relatively shallow from front to back. The chamber is provided with a front wall or cover 14 having an opening I5, the front wall being flared or funnelled slightly, as shown at It, so as to cause it to converge slightly toward the opening.

The chamber may be provided at its rear edge with a narrow annular flange I! so that the rear :wall of the chamber is comprised by a diaphragm l'8 of rubber or like material secured to this flange by'a plurality of bolts or similar fastening members l9. Secured to the diaphragm l8 is'a circular plate 20 of metal which serves to strengthen the diaphragm and to receive and spread the blow thereon by the plunger or hammer which will be later described. Secured to the plate 20 is a button or similar member 2| which serves as an anvil upon which the hammer may strike.

Secured to the forward portion of the stock I0 is a cylinder 22 provided with an L-shaped generally longitudinally extending slot 23. Within this cylinder is mounted a plunger 24. A pin 25 is secured to the plunger and passes through the slot .23, and on the end of this pin is secured a cocking button 26 by which the plunger may be drawn rearwardly to cocked position against the tension of the spring 21 mounted within the cylinder rearwardly of the plunger, which spring forces the plunger forwardly. plunger may be provided a metal button 28 to strike against the member 2 I.

A trigger 30 is pivoted at 3| to a bracket 32 secured at the upper side of the cylinder 22, this trigger being provided with a finger 33 to engage the button 26 when the plunger is drawn rearwardly and the pin 25 stands in the transverse portion of the slot 23.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that when the plunger 24 is drawn rearwardly, it will be held in this cocked position by engagement of On the front end of the the pin 25 in the transverse portion of slot 23, as shown in Fig. 3. When the trigger is pulled rearwardly in the usual manner, the finger 33 will be moved upwardly to engage the button and cam the pin 25 into the longitudinal portion of slot 23, whereupon the plunger will be released and propelled forwardly by the spring 21.

It may here be noted that the finger 33 is provided upon an arm 35 extending forwardly from the main portion of the trigger and that this arm may be curved laterally, as shown in Fig. 3, so that the trigger may lie directly above the cylinder 22 while the free end of the arm 35 which carries the finger 33 will be disposed adjacent the targets 38 may be hung, such, for example, as paper-representations of an airplane or other light object. Also, on the cords 31 may be provided fine strips of paper or the like 39 which will be moved by the puff or slug of air when struck.

When the plunger 24 is moved forwardly upon release of the trigger and strikes the anvil 2|, the diaphragm is will be moved forwardly from the full-line position to the dotted line position shown in Fig. 2. This sudden movement of the diaphragm will cause a ring or torus of air to move with considerable velocity from the opening [5, and this air projectile" will travel in compact form to the target at which it is aimed. It is probable that the air in the torus or ring is whirling about the circular axis of the torus, and this keeps it from scattering.

If this projectile strikes the target 38, it will be blown from the cord 31, but, if not, the movement of the strips 39 will indicate to the marksman where the projectile struck, and the marksman will then know how to correct his aim in order to strike the target.

While I have shown and described a preferred embodiment of my invention, it will be understood that it is not to be limited to all the details shown, but is capable of modification and variation within the spirit of the invention and within the scope of the claims.

What I claim is:

1. In a toy gun, a gun body comprising a barrel member and a stock, a cylindrical member secured to the barrel below the same and providing a chamber the axis of which is parallel to the barrel, said chamber having a forwardly directed opening, a diaphragm stretched across the chamber rearwardly of and spaced from said opening, a cylinder extending from said cylindrical member to the stock and secured to both thereof, and a plunger reciprocally mounted in the cylinder and adapted to actuate the diaphragm.

2. In a toy gun, a gun body comprising a barrel member and a stock, a, cylindrical member secured to the barrel below the same and providing a chamber the axis of which is parallel to the barrel, said chamber having a forwardly directed opening, a diaphragm stretched across the chamber rearwardly of and spaced from said opening, a cylinder extending from said cylindrical member to the stock and secured to both thereof, and a spring-propelled plunger reciprocally mounted in the cylinder and adapted to extend from the forward end thereof to actuate the diaphragm.

3. In a toy gun, a gun body comprising a barrel member and a stock, a cylindrical member secured to the barrel below the same and providing a chamber the axis of which is parallel to the barrel, said chamber having a forwardly directed opening, a diaphragm stretched across the chamber rearwardly of and spaced from said opening, a cylinder extending from said cylindrical member to the stock and secured to both thereof, a spring-propelled plunger mounted in the cylinder and adapted to project forwardly therefrom to actuate the diaphragm, said cylinder having an L-shaped slot in the wall thereof, a pin on the plunger extending into said slot, and a trigger pivoted on the cylinder and adapted to engage said pin.

MARK A. BEA'IHAN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,473,178 Dray Nov. 6, 1923 1,515,314 Petersen Nov. 11, 1924 1,615,266 French Jan. 25, 1927 1,926,585 Gibbons Sept. 12, 1933 

